EBRD to support EU-funded Slovak Recovery and Resilience Plan

Cooperation to boost the green performance of single-family homes

• EU finances Slovak economy with €6.3 billion of grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)
• EBRD and government of Slovakia sign Memorandum of Understanding for future cooperation to boost green performance of single family homes
• EBRD will mobilise significant amount of commercial co-financing for the successful implementation of the programme which will also receive €528 million in RRF grants

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is supporting the Slovak Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) in the field of energy efficiency and the green economy, boosting green investments as a crucial part of the long-term response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the EBRD, the Slovak Ministry of Environment, and the Slovak Environmental Agency today, the parties agree to support investments in the energy efficiency of single-family homes in the Slovak Republic with the help of a dedicated program.

Owners of single-family homes in the Slovak Republic will receive €528.2 million in RRF grants from the Slovak authorities to carry out medium and deep renovation works by improving their energy efficiency through a variety of green measures.

Successful implementation of the program will require a significant amount of commercial co-financing. This will be partly facilitated by InvestEU guarantees and EBRD risk-sharing arrangements for the benefit of commercial banks. The program is expected to become operational in the second half of 2022 and will benefit from technical assistance. This will also build on recent policy dialogue activities led by the EBRD to support the Ministry of Transport and Construction in drafting the Long Term Renovation Strategy for a roadmap to the carbon-neutral building stock.

Charlotte Ruhe, EBRD Managing Director for central and south-eastern Europe, said: “I am delighted to take part in this important signing. This is an important agreement and the first of its kind in Slovakia where a program will benefit from RRF grants, commercial banks’ financing, and homeowners savings. The new program will help Slovakia move forward with its green transition, especially from the point of view of building renovations”. 

Slovak Recovery and Resilience Plan

The European Commission approved the Slovak Recovery and Resilience Plan on 21 June 2021 and the European Council approved it at the ECOFIN meeting on 13 July 2021. The signing of a Grant Financing Agreement between the government and the European Commission has made the country eligible to receive a first 13% pre-financing allocation out of the €6.3 billion in RRF grants. The Slovak plan will allocate 43 percent of the grants for green and 21 percent for digital investment and reforms.

The EU RRF, part of NextGenerationEU, totals up to €724 billion (in current prices) in grants and concessional loans to support public and private investments as well as reforms across the European Union in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

EBRD in Slovakia

The EBRD has invested €2.7 billion in the Slovak Republic since it became a Country of Operation in 1993.

Supporting Green Economy Transition through dedicated financing facilities is one of the two key priorities of the latest EBRD Country Strategy for Slovakia.

The EBRD has a strong track record of successful cooperation with the Slovak authorities on investment programs aimed at building a green economy. Energy efficiency investment programs have benefited in the past from the government’s technical assistance and grant incentives for energy savings, with more than 1,000 small sub-loans extended through SlovSEFF and MunSEFF facilities across the country.

Finally, as well as being a country where the EBRD invests, the Slovak Republic is also an EBRD donor with about €16 million in donor contributions.

EBRD and the Recovery and Resilience Facility

The EBRD is assisting the deployment of the Recovery and Resilience Facility in its EU-12 member states with complementary investments, policy engagement, and project delivery.

In Greece, the EBRD recently signed an Operational Agreement with the Greek Ministry of Finance to support the implementation of the country’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) via the deployment of up to €500 million of RRF funds under the Greek Corporate Loan Facility and up to €500 million of EBRD loans to various sectors of the Greek economy towards an export-oriented, competitive, green and digital growth model.

source https://nrinews24x7.com/ebrd-to-support-eu-funded-slovak-recovery-and-resilience-plan/

December 03, 2021